Chapter 1: Growing Up
A now seventeen year old Dexter sat on the football field, waiting for his sister's cheerleading practice to end. When nobody was looking, he pulled a small bottle of vodka out of his bag. He took a quick drink while his friend, Ryan watched Justice being thrown into the air by the other cheerleaders. "Dude, your sister is hot." Ryan bit his lip.
Dexter handed his friend the bottle, but stared at him. "You're talking about my sister, man. Watch it,"
"C'mon, hook me up with her."
"I'm not doing shit, you're practically my brother, but if you started screwing my sister, I'd kick your ass."
Ryan took a drink, handed it back to Dexter and then stood up. "Then I'm gonna' ask her out."
Dexter watched as his friend walked out of the stands and onto the field. "Crazy motherfucker…" he mumbled, putting the now empty vodka bottle in his backpack before getting up and leaving. He'd just meet his sister back at The Bounty. Ryan was too afraid of the Julien twin, he wouldn't dare touch Justice.
As Dexter took a short cut through the boy's locker room, he heard a few of the jocks going into the showers. As he passed, he heard his sister's name. It was like he had an overprotective brother's switch and it immediately flipped on. He hid behind a locker and listened as the football team talked in the showers. "Did you see that Justice girl, man?"
"Yeah, but isn't she dating Dexter?" another asked.
"No, that's her twin brother."
"Who cares? She's hot."
Dexter rolled his eyes. Why did everyone have to crush on his sister? "Sure, she looks alright, but she super weird. Like the way she talks."
"You know there's a rumor she's a robot?"
"Nah, that's bull shit, a robot can't move like that."
Dexter held himself back from running into the showers and beating down the entire football team, but then he noticed something in the corner of his eye…A water heater…A smile graced his lips as he snuck over to it.
"Five bucks says I can hit that by Friday." One betted.
"You're on."
Dexter pulled out one of his textbooks and swung it at the water heater. Its thermometer burst open and the heat inside the locker room rose, making the android sweat. "This is what you get for talking about my sister." He mumbled, leaving the locker room.
As he walked down the school halls, he heard the doors of the locker room burst open. "HEY!" He glanced behind him to see several of the football players, running after him as they put on their clothes. "Shit." He said, starting to run. About seven or eight of the seniors ran after him as he took random turns around the school. In fear, he opened a random door and ran inside, closing and locking it behind him.
Dexter sighed with relief, but his eyes widened once he found out where he was. He had just run RIGHT INTO THE PRINICPAL'S OFFICE. Mr. Desmond sat at his desk, staring at the young man who just ran into his office without permission. Dexter whipped around, trying to open the door again, but it turned out the jocks had planned this, and they were holding the door closed!
At the worst possible time, the empty vodka bottle fell from Dexter's backpack and onto the floor. Mr. Desmond raised a brow. "Well, you're already here, have a seat." He ordered.
'Fuck.' Dexter thought, sitting down. "Why don't we call your parents?"
'DOUBLE FUCK!'
With Justice…
Justice waved at the other cheerleaders after practice ended, only for Ryan to walk up to her. "Hi, Justice." He smiled.
"Hello, Ryan." She said in her monotone identical to her father's. "Where is my brother?"
"Oh, he left; I guess he wants to meet you at your ship. Mind if I walk you?"
Justice nodded, trusting the boy. He was one of the hand full of people that knew about her and her brother being robots. "Alright, but I need to stop to the music room, I left a sheet of music there earlier today."
"'K." he shrugged.
As they walked into the school building, Ryan reached over and took Justice's hand, making her blush. Their fingers entwined slowly and she looked over to smile at him. When they got to the music room, she opened the door and walked in with him.
Justice searched around for a while and then found sheets of her music lying on a nearby desk. "Here they are…" she mumbled, picking them up. When she turned around, she found Ryan was only two inches or so away from her face. She dropped her papers and blushed harshly, diving down to pick them up. Ryan knelt down to help her collect them too. "Sorry I scared you." He apologized. She remained quiet, looking down. A strand of dark purple/black hair fell down from her ponytail and he noticed. He pushed it back behind her ear for her and she looked up, still blushing.
His honey yellow eyes connected with her icy blue ones. Ryan leaned forward and kissed Justice's pink lips gently. The kiss went on for only two seconds before she pulled away quickly and stood. He stood with her. "What? Did I do something? I didn't mean to get you upset or anything-"
"No, it's just…My brother, if he found out you were interested in me, he'd be upset."
Ryan sighed and grabbed her hand gently. "Well, I haven't been crushing on your brother since ninth grade."
Her blush deepened. "But I'm…" she gestured to the cold medal of her stomach, reminding him of what she was.
"Hey, so what? You're only half-robot anyway. Besides, I've met your dad and he's a robot, but he's still pretty cool and your brother, he's a robot too and yet he's my best-" she cut him off by kissing his lips.
With Kathleen…
Kai spotted his daughter, Kathleen in the crowd of middle scholars, but she wasn't smiling or talking, she was silent. "Hi, honey." He said, but she just walked straight ahead.
The twelve year old ignored her father as they walked back to The Bounty. "So, how was school?" he asked.
"God, will you please SHUT. UP?" she snapped.
The red ninja raised an eyebrow. "What's with the attitude?" he asked in a warning tone.
Kathleen rolled her eyes and stomped into her bedroom. Kai walked after her, only for the door to be slammed in his face. He knocked on the door. "WHAT?!" she yelled.
"Come out here and tell me why you're acting so rudely!"
A few seconds later, Kathleen flung the door open with tears in her eyes. "Can I talk to mom?" her voice was shaky, but still angered.
"You're mom's busy fixing the ship, what is going on with you?"
She went silent for a minute, staring at her father. "I GOT MY FIRST PERIOD, OKAY?!" she screamed, slamming the door again.
Kai twitched as he stood alone in the hallway. "Kathleen…Sweetie, uh, w-what do you want me to do?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shouted, whimpering as she buried her face in her pillow. 'What's wrong with me?' she thought, crying in her pillow.
He backed away from the door and went to go find his wife. "Jayleene…" he called out. "Code red…Literally…" he wasn't even trying to be funny about that one.
With Lance…
An eleven year old Lance Belmonte adjusted his glasses as he did his homework with his friend, Cheryl. "Hey, what did you get for #8?" Cheryl asked, stuck on the Algebra problem.
"Uh…" he fumbled with his notebook. Like his mother, he was clumsy, but still strong like his father. "x= 9." He said finally.
She scratched her head with her pencil. "I don't get it."
Lance inched over to her and took the notebook from her hands. "Okay, then let's do #9 it says 16+x=32. So we have to find out what x is."
"And you wanna' tell me how the heck to do that?"
"Think about it, what other number can go with sixteen to make thirty-two?"
"Can't you just give me the answer?" she whined.
"No, you know why?"
"Please, enlighten me!" she said sarcastically.
Lance smiled. "Because you're my friend, and I don't want you to fail."
She rolled her eyes. "I won't fail if you just give me all the answers."
"See, that's where you're gonna' start failing…Sure, I can help you cheat with homework, but what about when we're having a test and I'm sitting half-way across the room so you can't copy off of me?"
Cheryl slowly nodded. "Okay, I see your point…"
"Good now, c'mon, what do you think x is?"
She stared at the equation, confused. "I don't know…"
"Alright, let's try this, let's take the sum and subtract that from the subject, whatever the difference is that's what x is."
Cheryl worked it all out on a scrap piece of paper. "Sixteen…x equals sixteen!" she pumped her fist into the air. "I got it right!"
He smiled and she smiled back. "Hey, um…" he said awkwardly. "Do you…Wanna'…" A kiss was running through his mind, but he didn't have the guts… "Do you want some soda?" he chickened out.
"Sure." She said.
Cheryl and Lance left the room and went into the kitchen. He handed her a can of soda. "Okay, let's ditch the homework and listen to some music." Cheryl said as she finished her soda.
"We can't, you know Ms. Harrison is gonna' eat us alive if we don't turn it in."
"We'll still finish it, but we're just…What's the word?"
"Procrastinating," he answered.
She smiled. "You said it, nerd, not me." The chocolate haired girl tugged on her braid, thinking for a minute. "Unless you wanna' do something else."
"Like…?" he raised a brow.
"You've never kissed anyone, right?"
He blushed. "Yeah, well neither have you!" he shot back.
"And that's the point…" she said, walking towards him. "I watched some movie called Friends with Benefits; we can be Friends with Benefits! We kiss and hug and stuff but we're not girlfriend boyfriend."
He folded his arms. "That sounds weird."
"It's weird at first but we can get used to it."
Lance thought for a moment…He had a small crush on Cheryl ever since third grade and now there were in the seventh, maybe it wouldn't hurt… "Okay." He nodded.
Cheryl smiled lightly. "So what now…?" she rocked back and forth on her feet.
"I guess…We kiss…?"
"Um…Okay…Take off your glasses."
Lance pulled off his thin black frames slowly and placed them on the kitchen counter. Cheryl walked even closer to him. "Here goes, I guess…"
"Uh…Yeah…"
She leaned forward and planted her lips on his awkwardly. He always wanted to kiss her, but this felt way too weird, especially since they were in the kitchen. Then again, where did he expect his first kiss to take place? But he started not to mind…He could only pay attention to the new tingling feeling in his lips.
At the WORST time, his mother, April and dad, Cole walked into the kitchen. She dropped the bag of grapes she had in her hands and Cole couldn't help but smile. His thoughts; 'Thank God, he's not gay!'
Her thoughts; 'My eleven year old son is kissing a girl! No fair, I didn't get my first kiss until I was seventeen! I mean…God, I'm a horrible mom, did I really just say that?'
Lance opened his eyes, not sure when they closed and looked over to see his mom and dad. He immediately pulled away from Cheryl who bit her lip in embarrassment. "Uh…Hi mom, dad…" he waved, nervous as hell.
"Um…Do you need help cleaning that up…?" Cheryl asked weakly.
"No, Cheryl, I think you should go home now." April said, diving down to pick up the food.
"Oh…Kay…Uh, bye Mr. and Mrs. Belmonte…" she walked out of the room quickly.
Cole and April looked to their son. "Way to go, Lance!" Cole slammed his hand on his son's back.
"COLE! HE'S TWELVE!" April yelled.
"Well, he's not gay, in fact he's getting girls earlier than I did!"
"DAD!" Lance blushed deeply, putting on his glasses.
A/N: First chapter, done!